Courtesy of Film Movement

Law Building

1001 Bissonnet

Directed by William Vega

2012, in Spanish with English subtitles

Colombia/France/Mexico

88 minutes

Showtimes

The Towrope

LA SIRGA

William Vega’s first feature travels to a fascinating, little-known area of Colombia—the remote, sparsely populated highlands of the Andes. The film chronicles how the destructive effects of Colombia’s long-standing civil war extend to this far-flung corner of the country through the story of nineteen-year-old Alicia. When her family is murdered and her village destroyed, she flees to her only surviving relative, Uncle Don Oscar, a taciturn man living in isolation and reluctant to take her in. Don Oscar lives in a rundown lakeside inn, and Alicia begins to help his housekeeper with renovations for the tourist season—a futile task, as those tourists will never come. Vega depicts the obstacles facing Colombia’s indigenous population—not only the struggle to maintain their cultural traditions and values, but also to stay alive as the strife that has long beset the country arrives on their doorstep.